Ohio State not looking past anyone in BCS quest

Ohio State has its eyes on the big prize so It won't let the Big Ten also-rans get in the way.

By Todd PorterCantonRep.com staff writer

The last time Braxton Miller played in Champaign, Ill., he was the quarterback of a rag-tag offense and completed just one pass.

That was two years ago, during a lost season when Luke Fickell took over for Jim Tressel and the Ohio State program was teetering on obscurity.

Even a year ago, Miller wasn’t the quarterback Urban Meyer wanted him to be. Less than half of the playbook was in.

Now?

“It’s close to 100 percent,” Meyer said.

Imagine what a fully equipped Miller can do against a poor Illinois defense this afternoon. The third-ranked Buckeyes will need another impressive win against an underwhelming opponent just to keep pace in the national title race.

The remaining three games of the regular season are against Illinois, Indiana and a Michigan team that still is teetering on obscurity. If the teams on the schedule don’t challenge Ohio State, Meyer needs to be creative with internal challenges. Nothing less than a 35-point win will keep voters happy.

For his part Meyer did what he could in selling Illinois as the next opponent. He was respectful, even if it took combing through the nooks and crannies of game film to find the Illini’s — ahem — strengths.

“We’ve got to be prepared for getting Illinois’ best shot,” Meyer said. “They played some pretty good football as of late. The quarterback (Nathan Scheelhaase) is leading the league in (passing). They took Penn State to overtime and put up a lot of points and, I think, 600 yards on us the last game.”

But Illinois has a Big Ten losing streak almost as long as Ohio State’s winning streak. The Illini have lost 19 straight conference games.

Illinois still is paying two former coaches not to coach there, so head coach Tim Beckman may have some security. Beckman and Meyer coached together when the latter was at Bowling Green.

Beckman sees Ohio State following a typical Meyer blueprint for success.

“He went to Utah and did the same thing,” Beckman said. “Went down to Florida, and has done the same thing. You can see it at Ohio State. ... He’s doing his scheme

offensively.”

What has led to the Buckeyes really playing well, however, is a young defense coming together. Penn State and Iowa didn’t score many points when the game mattered.

Meyer is sounding like a coach confident his team can play with anyone.

Add a victory today and Ohio State will tie the school record for 22 straight wins. A blowout would keep pace with the Joneses of college football, namely Alabama and Florida State.

“I told the guys, I’ve been in this situation before and you have nothing to do with nothing, other than get ready to go play,” Meyer said. “There’s so much football to be played.”

Ohio State hasn’t had any problem this season playing well against lesser competition. At least not since hitting its stride in California.

Northwestern and Wisconsin, as expected, played the Buckeyes well for a half. But looking past Purdue or Penn State wasn’t an issue.

Instead of saying he had an angry team — angry about a lack of respect nationally — Meyer uses “invested.”

“They are two different, little words, but similar,” Meyer said. “Basically, you’re locked in as a team and you’re focused on the next task. That’s what this team is right now.”